We spend a good portion of our segment talking about the media coverage at Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans, including the madness around Media Day and what the media did, or did not cover during the week. We also give our predictions on how the ratings may be for CBS this Sunday.

We then shift into our continuing discussion on the Manti Te’O story, specifically how some seemed to be equally interested in the story itself and how and/why ESPN did not get the story first. It’s a fascinating discussion as to how ESPN is perceived in the realm of sports journalism.

The temperature at the Sports Media Weekly studios may be frigid, but the topics continue to be red hot.

Joining Ken Fang of Fang’s Bites and I for our “Third Man In” segment is Brian Berger, host of Sports Business Radio and partner in the media consulting firm Everything is on the Record. Brian relied on his experience in helping athletes shape their message during our discussion on how poorly linebacker Manti Te’O and cyclist Lance Armstrong handled their crises last week.

We then dovetail into the ratings for this past weekend’s AFC and NFC Championship games; viewership numbers which were outstanding for other sports but a dip for the NFL. We also look ahead as to what the story lines may be when the 49ers take on the Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII.

We wrap-up the segment looking at the return of the NHL and the strong opening day ratings numbers for NBC.

Our other gust this week is Amy Van Dyken, Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer who now co-hosts a weeknight show with Rob Dibble on Fox Sports Radio. Amy recounts how she got into the media business and how it is more difficult covering sports than competing in them.

We have a New York state Capital Region theme on this week’s Sports Media Weekly.

We start a new initiative this week by inviting a sports media reporter or blogger to join Ken Fang of Fang’s Bites and I as we discuss the sports media news of the week. For the premiere edition we are joined by sports media columnist Pete Dougherty (Twitter) of the Albany Times Union.

We start by talking about the still developing story broken by Deadspin that the reported death of the girlfriend of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o last fall was, in fact, a hoax. We discuss the story as we have it and how online sites like Deadspin can spend more time than traditional media outlets investigating such a story.

We then shift to the Lance Armstrong PED saga and how he may get more compassion from Oprah Winfrey than he may have from other reporters.

We look forward to the start of the NHL season and how the league is making it easier for local viewers to watch more games during the shortened season. We also predict hardcore fans will still watch games locally and nationally on NBC and the NBC Sports Network.

We wrap-up the news segment looking at our predictions on viewership for the upcoming NFL Conference Championship Games.

We are then joined by Andrew Catalon, who works for WNYT-TV in Albany but is just as well known for his work calling games for NBC Sports, CBS Sports, the Tennis Channel, and SNY. Andrew recounts his busy schedule, his work on the 2012 Olympics in London, and his versatility of calling just about any sport.